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| EF-18 fighter wearing Thales Scorpion helmet display. Photo: Thales |
[Avionics Today 05-13-2016] The Spanish Ministry of Defense will equip the EF-18 with 80 Thales Scorpion Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems (HMCS). Thales will install the HMCS in the aircraft during the course of 2016 and 2017, once the operational qualification phase and Air-to-Air (A2A) and Air-to-Ground (A2G) tests have been completed.
Scorpion is a force multiplier system offering full color symbology (navigation, intelligence, combat, etc.) for both nighttime and daytime missions, in addition to target cueing in potentially degraded visual environments, allowing target designation and allocation of points of interest with the aircraft’s sensors. Scorpion is fully interchangeable between helmets/pilots as it is installed directly over standard helmets, allowing operators to reduce the total amount of equipment necessary for the fleet.
Thales will be responsible for the viability study, testing phase, integration with test aircraft, qualification support and integration in the fleet. Thales will also be responsible for the development and production of the specific Scorpion configuration for the Spanish EF-18 including ejection safety analysis.